THE COURTS
Title 237—JUVENILE RULES
PART I. RULES
[ 237 PA. CODE CH. 4 ]
Order Adopting Rule 405 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Juvenile Court Procedure; No. 959 Supreme Court Rules Docket
[53 Pa.B. 5887]
[Saturday, September 23, 2023]
Order Per Curiam
And Now, this 11th day of September, 2023, upon the recommendation of the Juvenile Court Procedural Rules Committee, the proposal having been published for public comment at 52 Pa.B. 7266 (November 26, 2022):
It is Ordered pursuant to Article V, Section 10 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania that Pennsylvania Rule of Juvenile Court Procedure 405 is adopted in the attached form.
This Order shall be processed in accordance with Pa.R.J.A. 103(b), and shall be effective on January 1, 2024.
Annex A
TITLE 237. JUVENILE RULES
PART I. RULES
Subpart A. DELINQUENCY MATTERS
CHAPTER 4. ADJUDICATORY HEARING The following text is entirely new.
(Editor's Note: The following rule is new and is printed in regular type to enhance readability.)
Rule 405. Forensic Laboratory Report and Certification.
(a) Report and Certification In Lieu of Expert Testimony.
(1) If the requirements of this rule have been met, the attorney for the Commonwealth may seek to offer a forensic laboratory report into evidence in lieu of testimony in any adjudicatory hearing of a non-detained juvenile.
(2) The report shall be supported by a certification, as provided in subdivision (e), from the expert who drafted the report and performed the analysis or examination.
(b) Notice.
(1) The attorney for the Commonwealth shall file the written notice and serve the written notice, together with the report and certification, upon the juvenile's attorney.
(2) The notice shall include a statement informing the juvenile that:
(i) if no written demand for testimony is made within 10 days of the service of the notice, the forensic laboratory report and certification are admissible in evidence, as provided in subdivision (c)(3); and
(ii) the expert who drafted the report does not have to testify.
(3) Service shall occur no later than 20 days prior to the adjudicatory hearing.
(4) Once entered into evidence, the report and certification shall qualify as if the expert had testified personally.
(c) Demand.
(1) Within 10 days of service of the notice, the juvenile's attorney may file and serve a written demand upon the attorney for the Commonwealth requiring the expert to testify at the adjudicatory hearing.
(2) If a written demand is filed and served, the expert must testify.
(3) If no demand is filed and served as required by subdivision (c)(1), the report and certification are admissible in evidence without the expert's testimony.
(d) Extension. For cause shown, the judge may:
(1) extend the time requirements of this rule; or
(2) grant a continuance of the adjudicatory hearing.
(e) Certification. The expert shall complete a certification providing:
(1) the education, training, and experience that qualify the expert to perform the analysis or examination;
(2) the entity by which the expert is employed and a description of the expert's regular duties;
(3) the name and location of the laboratory where the analysis or examination was performed;
(4) any state, national, or international accreditations of the laboratory at which the analysis or examination was performed;
(5) that the analysis or examination was performed under industry-approved procedures or standards; and
(6) the report accurately reflects the findings and opinions of the expert.
Comment: This rule is intended to establish a uniform procedure for delinquency proceedings, similar to Pa.R.Crim.P. 574, for the admission of laboratory reports without the expense of live expert testimony while protecting a juvenile's confrontation rights. The rule provides a ''notice and demand'' procedure for delinquency proceedings. Under this rule, the attorney for the Commonwealth may seek to admit a forensic laboratory report as evidence without expert testimony if the notice requirements are met and no demand for the presence of the expert is made. If the juvenile makes such a demand, the expert is required to testify before the report can be admitted into evidence.
Given the prompt adjudicatory hearing requirement of the Juvenile Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 6335(a) (if the juvenile is detained, then the adjudicatory hearing must be held within 10 days of the filing of a petition), this rule is only available for adjudicatory hearings of non-detained juveniles. See Pa.R.J.C.P. 404(B) (if the juvenile is not detained, then the adjudicatory hearing must be held within a reasonable time).
Nothing in this rule is intended to: 1) preclude a stipulation agreed to by the parties for the admission of the report without the expert's presence; 2) prevent further stipulation by the parties in light of the admission of the report and certification; or 3) change the discovery requirements pursuant to Rule 340.
Pursuant to subdivision (d), the court may permit filing of the notice or demand after the time period required in the rule if the party seeking the late filing shows cause for the delay. In the situation where the judge permits the late filing of the notice, the juvenile still has ten days to make the demand for the live testimony of the expert. This may necessitate a continuance of the adjudicatory hearing.
The certification in subdivision (e) does not require a description of the actual tests performed for the analysis. This information more properly belongs in the report itself. Because one of the goals of this rule is to permit the juvenile to make an informed decision regarding whether to demand the live testimony of the expert, the report should provide information sufficient to describe the methodology by which the results were determined.
For purposes of this rule, a laboratory is ''accredited'' when its management, personnel, quality system, operational and technical procedures, equipment, and physical facilities meet the ISO/IEC 17025 standard in the forensic field of testing as determined by an International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation recognized accreditation organization that has been evaluated to meet the ISO/IEC 17011 standard and that has expertise in the forensic laboratory accreditation field.
See Rule 345 for filing and service requirements.
SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA
JUVENILE COURT PROCEDURAL RULES COMMITTEE
ADOPTION REPORT
Adoption of Pa.R.J.C.P. 405 On September 11, 2023, the Supreme Court adopted Pennsylvania Rule of Juvenile Court Procedure 405 governing the admission of a certified forensic lab report in lieu of the expert appearing and testifying in court. The Juvenile Court Procedural Rules Committee has prepared this Adoption Report describing the rulemaking process. An Adoption Report should not be confused with Comments to the rules. See Pa.R.J.A. 103, cmt. The statements contained herein are those of the Committee, not the Court.
The Committee was requested to consider a new Rule of Juvenile Court Procedure mirroring Pa.R.Crim.P. 574 (Forensic Laboratory Report; Certification In Lieu of Expert Testimony) governing the admission of a certified forensic lab report in lieu of the expert appearing and testifying in court. The reasons for rulemaking include increased consistency among the bodies of rules for prosecutors and defenders crossing over from criminal proceedings to delinquency proceedings. Also, responses to offers of stipulation are sometimes not received so having a formal mechanism would be beneficial. Further, experts seem increasingly busy, and a rule that operates to relieve the burden of appearing when reports are uncontested would allow the experts to focus on the proceedings where reports are contested and would reduce lab testing backlogs.
The Committee previously published proposed Pa.R.J.C.P. 405, which provided for ''notice and demand'' procedures nearly identical to Pa.R.Crim.P. 574. See 44 Pa.B. 3306 (June 7, 2014). The Committee ultimately discontinued rulemaking because the timeframes were not compatible with adjudicatory hearings for detained juveniles. See Pa.R.J.C.P. 404(A) (hearing to be held within 10 days of the petition's filing). Further, several commenters indicated that stipulations were a widely used and effective alternative to live expert witness testimony.
Given the prior comments, the Committee considered a rule largely modeled after Pa.R.Crim.P. 574 but that would exclude juveniles who were in pre-adjudication detention given the 10-day adjudicatory window for detained juveniles. The rate of pre-adjudication detention appears to be declining over time and most detentions now occur post-adjudication. Consequently, the ''detention exclusion'' would not erode the value of the rule. Additionally, the proposed rule would only be applicable in adjudicatory hearings pursuant to Pa.R.J.C.P. 406; it would not apply to probation revocation hearings.
The proposal was published for comment. See 52 Pa.B. 7266 (November 26, 2022). Two comments were received. The first commenter believed the proposed rule was necessary because stipulations to admit laboratory reports are ''not necessarily the norm.''
The second commenter was the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation, which generally supported the rule. The Association recommended that the Comment not name specific certifying organizations because the certifying organization contained in the Comment no longer exists as named. Instead, the Association suggested referencing the forensic testing standard and the standard for the accrediting body. The Association provided information as to the specific standards. That suggestion was incorporated into the Comment.
This rule becomes effective January 1, 2024.
[Pa.B. Doc. No. 23-1278. Filed for public inspection September 22, 2023, 9:00 a.m.]
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